Carmelo, O’Quinn tossed in defeat

As if the Knicks, with their Swiss cheese defense, didn’t have enough problems, their offense suffered two thirdquarter hits Monday night. Carmelo Anthony was ejected for a league-leading third time this season. Anthony, apparently irate about not getting foul calls a few clock ticks earlier, was slapped with two technicals at 2:35 of the third, when the Knicks were down 19.

Then at 1:16, Kyle O’Quinn hit/ shoved Anthony Davis from behind, sending the Pelicans star into the baseline photographers, the front row of fans and nearly into the Eighth Avenue post office. After review, the refs bounced O’Quinn on a Flagrant Foul 2. Anthony, who had been tossed on technicals in Boston on Nov. 11, also was ejected on a Flagrant Foul 2 in Atlanta on Dec. 28. Neither Anthony nor O’Quinn commented afterward.

“I’m good. I have a bruised hip,” said Davis, who had a noticeable limp after his tumble. “Going to try to get it right. I have a couple days before I play again, so I’ll get a lot of treatment.”

When the Knicks and Pelicans played Dec. 30 in New Orleans, the Pelicans threw everything at Kristaps Porzingis and fared well. The Knicks’ 7-foot-3 Latvian forward shot 8of-20 and scored 21 points in that contest, and even before the Pelicans limited him to 3of-13 shooting and nine points Monday, New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry sang the Latvian’s praises and compared him to Dirk Nowitzki.

“He’s really, really a good player,” Gentry said. “I mean he’s really a good player, and he’s just going to keep getting better and better. The thing I like about him is that there’s a toughness about him that makes him even that much confident and I think right now the only thing he’s missing, he’s going to get stronger, and when he’s going to get stronger, he reminds you of a guy in Dallas, a lot of a guy in Dallas who was pretty good in this league and still is.”